166 THE HOME ACRE. 



continue in bearing through weeks and months. 

 It may often be possible to supply abundantly on 

 the Home Acre this vital requirement of moisture, 

 and I shall refer to this point farther on. 



My first advice in regard to strawberries is to 

 set them out immediately almost anywhere except 

 upon land so recently in grass that the sod is still 

 undecayed. This course is better than not to have 

 the fruit at all, or to wait for it. A year without 

 strawberries is a lost year in one serious respect. 

 While there is a wide difference between what 

 plants can do under unfavorable conditions and 

 what they can be made to do when their needs are 

 fully met, they will probably in any event yield a 

 fair supply of delicious fruit. Secure this as soon 

 as possible. At the same time remember that a 

 plant of a good variety is a genius capable of won- 

 derful development. In ordinary circumstances 

 it is like the " mute, inglorious " poets whose en- 

 forced limitations were lamented by the poet Gray ; 

 but when its innate powers and gifts are fully nour- 

 ished it expands into surprising proportions, sends 

 up hundreds of flowers, which are followed by 

 ruby gems of fruit whose exquisite flavor is only 

 surpassed by its beauty. No such concentrated 

 ambrosia ever graced the feasts of the Olympian 

 gods, for they were restricted to the humble Fra- 

 garia vesca, or Alpine species. In discovering the 



